Drier for sheet material



Feb. 16, 1937. J. H. CONNOR El AL,

DRIER FOR SHEET MATERIAL Filed March 18, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 AWE/V70 5 Feb. 16, 1937. J. H. CONNOR El AL.

DRIER FOR SHEET MATERIAL Filed March 18, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2' Patented Feb. 16, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,071,296 DRIER FOR- SHEET MATERIAL Application March 18, 1935, Serial No. 11,594

4 Claims.

This invention relates to driers for sheet material. While the invention is illustrated as embodied in a drier for hides and skins stretched out upon drying boards or frames, it will be understood that the invention and various important features thereof may have other applications and uses.

Objects of this invention are to facilitate the drying of hides and skins and to provide an especially simple and effective apparatus for performing the drying operations.

To these ends and in accordance with an important feature of the invention, means is provided in a drying chamber for causing unsaturated air to pass downwardly over the surfaces of hides or skins held in extended condition on vertically positioned drying boards or frames. It is a little appreciated fact that unsaturated air brought into contact with wet hides or skins no on vertically positioned boards or frames will take up moisture from the said hides or skins and, in doing so, will become chilled and flow in a downward direction, if space permits. Advantage is taken of this fact in the illustrated embodiment of the invention by providing for the entrance of air at the top of the drying chamber and exit of the moisture-laden air at the lower end of said chamber. In order to maintain simplicity in the construction of the cham- 30 her, the hides or skins on their supporting frames are inserted in properly spaced relation within the chamber and remain stationary therein while air is supplied in a uniform manner to all of the hides or skins on said frames. To this end special means is provided for securing uniformity in the distribution of air over and past the hides or skins in the drying chamber. In a preferred construction, the said means is embodied as a single blower turning about a horizontal axis and comprising helically arranged blades extending in opposite directions, as a right and a left helix, from a median point above the center of the chamber, the arrangement of the blades being such that air is not only blown downwardly by said blades but is drawn inwardly from both ends toward the middle, thereby providing an adequate supply of air at the middle of the chamber so that the hides or skins in all portions of the chamber will be dried uniformly in substantially the same time.

These and other important features of the invention and novel combinations of parts will now be described in detail in the specification and then pointed out more particularly in the appended claims.

In the drawings,

Fig. .1 is a view in side elevation, partly broken away, of a drier showing one embodiment of the invention; 7

Fig. 2 is a view of the drier shown in Fig. 1 looking from the right in said figure;

Fig. 3 is a detail of the blower embodied in the drier of Figs. 1 and 2; and

Fig. 4 is a detail view of a baffle plate.

In the illustrated machine, which is' designed particularly for the drying of hides and skins, there is provided a drying chamber 6 adapted to contain a relatively large number of drying boards or frames 8. Conveniently, the chamber 6 is provided with a movable front wall I0 which may be slid upwardly to a position to permit unobstructed access to the chamber 6 so that frames 8 may be readily introduced into the chamber and as readily removed therefrom. Preferably and as shown, the movable wall In is counterbalanced by means of weights [2 carried by cords l4 passing over pulleys IS. The back and side walls of the chamber 6 may be stationary and rigidly secured in place. However, the chamber 6 is freely open at top and bottom except for the provision of U-shaped guideways l8 which, as illustrated, are of a width to receive two drying boards 8 back to back with a skin on the exposed surface of each drying board. It will be understood, however, that the guideways l8 may be of a size to hold only one drying board, in which case each board will hold a skin 20 on each side thereof.

For causing air to flow downwardly over the surfaces of the skins on all of the drying boards 8 in a uniform manner, there is provided, in the construction shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a blower 22 made up of blades 24 arranged in a right and a left helix extending from the median portion of the blower, each blade being secured at its ends to one of a plurality of arms 26 fixedly secured to a horizontally arranged shaft 28 in sets of four at each end of the shaft. The latter may be driven by a suitably driven belt engaging a pulley 29 secured to the shaft 28. Each blade 24 is also secured to one of a plurality of arms 30 securely attached to said shaft 28 at or near the middle portion thereof. It will be clear from an inspection of Figs. 1 and 2 that the blower Z2 is locatedin a chamber 32 above the drying chamber 6 and that this chamber 32 has a curved wall 34 concentric with respect to the shaft 28, the chamber 32 having also end Walls 36 each having a circularopening 38 for admission of air to the blower 22. The blades-24 sweep over and closely adjacent to thecircular wall 34 and thus the wall and blades co-operate to force the air in a downward. direction. Extending across the circular opening 38 at each end of the chamber 32 is a bar 49 which furnishes support for journal bearings for the shaft 23, one of said bearings being shown at 42 in Fig. l of the drawings. It is an important feature of the construction of the blower 22 that the blades 24 are so arranged helically as to draw air into the chamber 32 through the openings 38 at each end thereof, while at the same time forcing the air in a downward direction from the chamber 32 and through the chamber 6. As indicated above, the helical arrangement of the blades 24 serves to conduct air toward the middle of the chamber 22 from each opening 38 thereof, thereby insuring an adequate supply of air to be forced downwardly through the middle portion of the chamber 6 as well as through other portions thereof. In this way substantially the same amounts of air are caused to pass over the surfaces of the skins upon all of the drying boards 8, as evidenced by substantially uniform drying of the skins in about the same length of time.

Preferably, and as shown in Fig. 1, there is provided a baflle plate 44 at the front of the fan chamber 32, the baffle plate being positioned at an angle of about 45 to the adjacent wall of the chamber and extending the full length thereof along said wall. There is also provided in the illustrated construction a baffle plate 46 at the lower rear portion of said chamber 32, this baffie plate making an angle of about 45 to the adjacent wall of the chamber and also extending substantially the full length of the chamber. The bafile plate 44 helps to direct the air downwardly toward the drying boards 8 in the chamber 6, while the baflie plate 46 serves to check the tendency of the air to follow the blades 24 of the blower in an upward direction away from the drying chamber 6. While the line of contact of each baffle plate with its adjacent wall may be horizontal throughout, it is contemplated that each bafile plate 44, 46 will be made up of two metal strips or boards arranged end to end at the longitudinal center of the chamber, the purpose being to provide an arrangement wherein the line of contact of each bafile board with its adjacent wall may be lower at each end of the chamber than at the longitudinal center thereof. For example, the line of contact of each baflle board with its adjacent wall may be at an angle of from about 10 to 25 to the horizontal. Preferably and as indicated in Fig. 4, baflie boards 41 and 48 of bafiie plate 44 make an angle of about 25 to the horizontal and have their adjacent ends hinged together and reduced in thickness about one-half so that these end portions may overlap, as indicated by dotted line 49, and thus may be readily adjusted with respect to each other, thereby facilitating such an arrangement of baffle boards with respect to the blower as will assist in securing uniform distribution of air to the drying boards 8 in all parts of the chamber 6.

In drying hides or skins in the illustrated drier, the hide or skin is first stretched out and se cured to a drying board or frame and is then placed within the drying chamber 6 by inserting the dryingboard or frame in corresponding upper and lower guideways I8 by which the drying board or frame is held in a substantially vertical plane in the desired spaced relation with respect to adjacent pieces of work. Upon starting the blower or blowers in operation, unsaturated air from a suitable source is drawn into the drier and is forced downwardly in substantially uniform amounts over the surfaces of the hides or skins in the drying chamber, the air escaping at the lower end of the drying chamber either into the room or into a tunnel to conduct the air to an air conditioning chamber before it is returned to the drier at the top thereof. The best results are attained when air at ordinary room temperatures is passed over the hides or skins during the drying operation.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a drier for work pieces such as hides, skins, and leather, a chamber having guideways for positioning and supporting hides or skins spaced from each other in vertical parallel planes, an outlet for air at the lower end of said chamber, an inlet for air at the upper end of said chamber, said inlet and outlet extending across all of the spaces between the work pieces so that said spaces communicate directly with said inlet and outlet for the admission and escape of air directly to and from said spaces, and a helically bladed blower extending along a horizontal axis and substantially the full length of said chamber at the inlet end thereof to blow air downwardly in a uniform manner through all of the spaces between the work pieces in the chamber, said helically bladed blower having its blades arranged in a right and a left helix of equal size to carry air from its ends toward the middle of the chamber whereby an adequate supply of air is provided for work pieces at the middle of the chamber as well as at each end thereof.

2. In a drier for sheet material, a chamber having guideways for positioning and supporting pieces of work spaced from each other in vertical parallel planes, an outlet at the lower end of said chamber, said inlet and outlet extending across all of the spaces between the work pieces so that said spaces communicate directly with said inlet and outlet for the admission and escape of air directly to and from said spaces, an inlet for air at the upper end of said chamber, and a blower having blades in a right and a left helix extending along a horizontal axis substantially the full length of said chamber at the inlet end thereof to blow air downwardly in a uniform manner through all of the spaces between the work pieces in the chamber, the top wall of the chamber being cylindrical and concentric with respect to said axis, and said helically bladed blower having the blades thereof arranged to sweep over the inside surface of said cylindrical wall in close juxtaposition thereto to force the air downwardly, the end walls of the chamber having openings concentric with respect to the axis of the blower, and said blades extending in helices toward the middle of the chamber from each end thereof to carry air toward the middle of the chamber whereby an adequate supply of air is provided for work pieces at the middle of the chamber as well as at each end thereof.

3. In a drier for sheet material, a chamber having guideways for positioning and supporting pieces of work in vertical parallel planes, an outlet at the lower end of said chamber, an inlet for air at the upper end of said chamber, said inlet and outlet extending across all of the spaces between the work pieces so that said spaces communicate directly with said inlet and outlet for the admission and escape of air directly to and from said spaces, a blower having blades in a right and a left helix extending toward the middle of the chamber from each end thereof along a horizontal axis substantially the full length of said chamber at the inlet end thereof to blow a uniform amount of air downwardly over all pieces of work in the chamber, the end walls of the chamber having openings concentric with respect to said axis and the top wall of the chamber being cylindrical and concentric with respect to said axis, and said helically bladed blower having the blades thereof arranged to sweep over the inside surface of said cylindrical wall in close juxtaposition thereto to force the air downwardly, a baffle plate secured to the inner surface of the front wall of the chamber closely adjacent to the circular path of the blower blades, and a second bafile plate secured to the inner surface of the back wall of the chamber closely adjacent to the circular path of the blower blades, both baffle plates being arranged at an angle of about to the adjacent chamber wall and having the function of assisting in the maintenance of an even distribution of air under pressure in that portion of the drying chamber just above the pieces of work therein.

4. In a drier for sheet material, a chamber having guideways for positioning and supporting pieces of work in vertical parallel planes, an outlet at the lower end of said chamber, an inlet for air at the upper end of said chamber, said inlet and outlet extending across all of the spaces between the work pieces so that said spaces communicate directly with said inlet and outlet for the admission and escape of air directly to and from said spaces, a blower having blades in a right and a left helix extending toward the middle of the chamber from each end thereof along a horizontal axis substantially the full length of said chamber at the inlet end thereof to blow a uniform amount of air downwardly over all pieces of work in the chamber, the end walls of the chamber having openings concentric with respect to said axis and the top wall of the chamber being cylindrical and concentric with respect to said axis, and said helically bladed blower having the blades thereof arranged to sweep over the inside surface of said cylindrical wall in close juxtaposition thereto to force 'the air downwardly,. a baffle plate extending substantially the full length of the inner surface of the front wall of the chamber closely adjacent to the circular path I of the blower blades, and a second baffle plate similar in extent to the first bafile plate and secured to the inner surface of the back wall of the chamber closely adjacent to the circular path of the blower blades, each baflle plate comprising two boards of substantially equal length arranged end to end at an angle of about 25 to the horizontal along the adjacent chamber wall, said boards being adjustable to vary said angle, and both bafile plates having the function of assisting in the maintenance of an even distribution of air under pressure in that portion of the drying chamber just above the pieces of work therein.

JOHN H. CONNOR.

MATTHEW M. MERRITT.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent No. 2,071,296. February 16, 1957.

JOHN H. CONNOR, ET AL.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: In the grant, line 1-2, name of second inventor, for "MATHEW M, MERRITT" read MATTHEW M. MERRITT; page 2, second column, lines 46 and 4'7, claim 2, strike out the words and comma "an inlet for air at the upper end of said chamber," and insert the same before said" in line 42, same claim; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with these corrections therein that the same may conform to the record of. the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 23rd day of March, A. D. 1937.

Henry Van Arsdale (Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

